A Line Crossed
by steepedinshadows419
Summary: 1x06 - Barry and Joe have a heart-to-heart.


**A/N: **I hope you enjoy!

*****Many thanks to **sendtherain** for beta'ing.

*****I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

After sharing of possible broken hands and making sure Tony was really, truly unconscious, Barry flashed Iris out of their old elementary school and reported to the arriving fire and police department that all was well. The Flash had taken care of it.

"You bet you have!" Cisco nearly screamed in his ear, to which Barry's lips twitched. Then he flashed back into the school to get Tony and slammed his dead weight into the pipeline at STAR Labs, waiting, smug as he'd never been before, for his childhood bully to wake up.

It wasn't until after he'd had his verbal, completely safe confrontation with Tony, and his shared laughs with Caitlin and Cisco, that his mind switched back to Iris. He'd pushed the fear for her safety into the back of his mind at the time because he'd had to in order to stay focused. But now it all hit him like a ton of bricks. There was no knowing the amount of pain Tony could've inflicted on Iris. Barry was satisfied that he was now impenetrably locked away – so to speak, but there was still an ache in him to make sure she was okay.

He went to Joe first, because 1) he didn't know where she was, and 2) calling her directly felt like the wrong way to go since they were still technically in a fight.

"Bear! Hey! I'm just leaving STAR Labs."

Heavy breathing came from the other end.

"Barry? Are you okay? The cops on sight said the Flash looked in tip-top shape when they saw him."

"No, yeah, I'm okay. Hand hurts a little, but I think it's almost healed."

"Yeah, that's what Iris said too. Though I'm sure hers will take a little longer than yours to heal." He chuckled lightly.

Barry froze. "You've seen Iris?"

He was hoping Joe had, but still.

"She came right to me." Joe frowned, then paused a few seconds, trying to translate Barry's weird behavior over the phone. "Have you not seen her yet?"

"Joe." His strained scoff was a red flag right away. "The Flash has been with her all night." He licked his lips, nervous now. "Er, not all night. Just the part where I saved her, and then she saved me. It was kind of a team effort really, I guess you could say. You can definitely tell she's your daughter. In fact-"

"Bear."

The rambling stopped.

"The Flash has seen her tonight, but has Barry Allen?"

Barry's mouth went dry.

"Go see her, son."

"We're in a fight, Joe. She doesn't want to see me."

Joe nodded and reluctantly gave up his pride.

"Yeah, about that. Did you really…break up your friendship with her because she wouldn't agree to stop writing about The Flash?"

Barry said nothing.

Joe sighed.

"That's too far, Bear."

"I didn't know what else to do!" he said, exasperated. "She wouldn't stop, and then Bette died, and it still didn't…" He sighed. "It made her stop, didn't it?"

Joe paused for too long, mostly because she'd only stopped for about one night. But Barry was too blind and emotional to see it that way.

"See," Barry said. "Just what you wanted."

"She didn't- And I never wante-" He ran his hand down his face. "Come here."

Barry's brows furrowed. "I-"

"I'm in the STAR Labs parking lot. Get-"

A flurry of wind blew past his face and suddenly Barry was before him. There was a continued silence as Joe adjusted to nearly being blown over.

Barry winced. "Sorry."

"It's…" Joe cleared his throat. "It's all right." He fixed his eyes on Barry's. "Look, what you and Iris have? Your friendship? It's what's made you who you are today, and who Iris is too. Now, Iris is my baby girl, and I'm terrified something bad would happen to her tonight because of her connection to the Flash. But…"

"But?" he asked, hope peaked.

"Tony didn't just take Iris because she's been writing about the Flash. Iris told me it's because he's had a crush on her since forever, and he had this obsessive need for her to write for him because of that."

"What are you saying?" he asked, brows furrowed.

"I'm saying that there are other things in life that can hurt her besides her writing about the Flash. So… I still don't want her to know who he is. My mind hasn't changed on that."

Barry's shoulder slumped, dejected.

"_But_," Joe was quick to continue, "Let her write about him. It's not worth losing your lifelong friendship over."

Barry nodded a bit timidly in agreement, and Joe's fatherly smile spread.

"C'mere, you…punk." He pulled him in for a hug, and Barry laughed. "That was one hell of a trick you pulled tonight. You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah," Barry said, pulling back with tears in his eyes. "I'm all right."

Joe grinned. "Go see our girl. You know where she is."

Barry gave him a confused look and Joe returned it with a knowing one.

"Come on."

Barry grinned slowly, then nodded, and in a flash, he was gone.

...

**A/N:** Sound familiar? That's because I pulled it straight out of chapter 6 of Wet Dream. I couldn't help it. I enjoyed the platonic scene between Joe and Barry too much. And if you want the westallen smut that follows...head on over to WD ch6. It's right there for the reading!


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